A Micro-inequity is a small, often overlooked act of exclusion or bias that could convey a lack of respect, recognition, or fairness towards marginalized individuals.
The theory of micro-inequity helps elucidate how individuals may experience being overlooked, ignored, or harmed based on characteristics like race, gender, or other perceived attributes of disadvantage, including political views and marital status.
[1][2] This falls within the broader marginalizing micro-level dynamics that refer to subtle, often unnoticed mechanisms within a society that contribute to the exclusion, disempowerment, or disadvantage of certain individuals or groups.
These dynamics operate at a granular level, perpetuating inequalities and disparities in resource distribution, access to opportunities, and overall participation in social, economic, and political spheres.
[3] Micro-inequities, micro-affirmations, and micro-advantages are often executed using coded language or subtle non-verbal cues, formally in written communications or informally in conversations, known as micro-messaging.
[10] These messages are conveyed through facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, word choices, nuance, and syntax that are relayed both consciously and unconsciously.
In the Profiles in Diversity Journal article "The DNA of Culture Change," Joyce Tucker writes, "Organizations have done a great job at controlling the big, easily-seen offensive behaviors but have been somewhat blind to what is rarely observed.
Listening with your arms folded, losing eye contact with the person you're speaking with, or even the way you move your lips to shape a smile—in any given conversation, we may send hundreds of messages, often without even saying a word.
"[12] Mary Rowe of MIT, coined the terms micro-inequities and micro-affirmations in 1973, building upon previous research on micro-aggression by Chester Pierce, specifically around racial hostility.
Mary Rowe's original research studied the impact micro-messages have on the academic community and relationships in general in the United States and worldwide.
[2] Young states that these drivers of unconscious bias reflect the positions people hold about others that are influenced by past experiences, forming filters that cause conclusions to be reached about a group or ethnicity through methods other than active thought or reasoning.
An alternate perspective to Mary Rowe's "reverse phenomenon" of micro-affirmations theory is Stephen Young's introduction of a third layer, micro-advantages.
Other examples include the casual use of the term "she" while referring to individuals in occupations that have been predominantly women, such as teachers, nurses, and secretaries, and the disrespect sometimes exhibited toward fathers as full-time homemakers.
In Julie Rowe's Time Magazine article "Why Your Boss May Be Sweating the Small Stuff," she outlines workplace micro-inequity applications and how they influence performance.
Raising the knowledge of micro-messaging in the corporate sector can "make even hardened executives recognize themselves, or at the very least, their superiors" as senders of micro-inequities, according to Young.
[23] Since micro-inequities represent each person's status quo of behavior, it normally requires experiential examples on the receiving side to understand their impact on altering performance.
Recently, a great deal of work has been done by various consultants, experts doing research in the social sciences and neuroscience, and leaders in the field of diversity.
After earning a communications degree from Emerson College, Stephen Young entered finance and eventually became senior vice president of JP Morgan Chase, managing the firm's global diversity strategy.
Young's company, Insight Education Systems, founded in 2002, has helped implement his program at Starbucks, Raytheon, Cisco, IBM, Merck, and other Fortune 500 corporations.